BlackBerry launches first ever slider handset

Research In Motion has announced today their BlackBerry Torch 9800 - their first device with a touch screen and a keyboard, that slides out from underneath the display. The new handset arrives with the latest BlackBerry 6.0 OS, which will first be seen on the 9800 along with a Webkit browser.

BlackBerry's Torch has a 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen, along with a standard RIM Qwerty keyboard that's accessible from sliding the screen upwards. On board is a 5 megapixel camera, with the phone having WIFI and quad-band GSM capabilities, in a 4.37-inch tall phone or 5.83-inches when opened up.

The BlackBerry 9800 also ships with OS 6.0, which brings a whole host of new features into the handset - most notably, universal search, social networking feeds, WIFI tethering, a Webkit browser with pinch-to-zoom-in features. The new OS will be made available for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and also the BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 series.

The Torch first launches with AT&T in the USA, where future unveilings of UK and Europe networks will be announced over the next few weeks with the possibility of other slider handsets on the horizon.